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Half brook trout, half lake trout - the splake impacts local freshwater fisheries

June 29, 2007 - Fisheries biologists have made serious mistakes in the past -- lake trout in Sebago Lake, shrimp in Moosehead Lake, smelts in northern Maine brook trout ponds. These introductions by the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife negatively affected native fisheries and changed forever the ecology of Maine's two largest freshwater lakes and many of our native brook trout waters.

These introductions were made with the very best of intentions -- but without the forethought or research necessary to predict the negative impacts that have occurred.

The Fishing Initiative Committee of the Sportsmen's Alliance of Maine, for which I work, proposed legislation this session to stop the introduction of splake into waters where they can migrate to native and wild brook trout ponds, and directing the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to prepare a list of waters that are suitable for splake.

The bill resulted in one of the most contentious and interesting issues of the session for anglers. After the Fish and Wildlife Committee voted 10 to 2 against the bill, it won an amazing resurrection on the House floor where, by a vote of 83 to 59, House members rejected the committee's negative vote and endorsed the legislation, feeding it to the Senate where it also won favor after a 20 to 14 vote against the committee's negative recommendation.

The debate and vote demonstrated a significant understanding of the importance of Maine's native brook trout, to the credit of the legislators who supported and spoke for this bill. Representative Ted Kaufman was particularly blunt, saying, "Splake are the McDonald's burger - they can be super size, they're everywhere - crowding out local restaurants."

Splake are a hybrid hatchery fish, one half brook trout and one half lake trout. Some call them the Frankenstein fish, and they have been spread willy-nilly without the knowledge needed to prevent serious mistakes. They are migrating to native and wild trout and salmon waters, and threatening the kinds of changes that northern pike and muskies have brought to so many Maine lakes and rivers.

The Sportsmen's Alliance of Maine has expressed concern over splake for many years. I remember years ago, at one of our Fisheries Initiative Committee meetings, asking Peter Burke, then Director of the Fisheries Division of the DIF&W, how far he intended to go with splake.

"Sky's is the limit," replied Peter.

That comment haunts us to this day. It reflects the department's infatuation with this fish, with no thought to the consequences.

At the public hearing on SAM's bill, DIF& W.'s Fisheries Director, John Boland, offered the department's testimony in opposition, saying they didn't understand it, and contending that "we are unaware of any stocked splake that have migrated into Maine's heritage brook trout waters."

Boland did concede, "It is true that a limited number of slake occasionally migrate to other waters that may contain wild trout." Urging the committee to reject the bill, Boland offered the age old nugget, "You can trust us."

As reported by former Central Maine newspapers outdoor columnist Dave Sherwood in April 2006, "the splake debate reached near epic fervor with the opening of Maine's open water fishing season this April, when guides, lodge owners, and fishermen began catching splake in some of Maine's most storied wild native trout waters: the Rapid and Magalloway rivers near Rangeley, the Kennebec River in Bingham, the West Branch of the Penobscot and Munsungan and Millinocket Lakes in Maine's north woods."

Now let me be clear about this. There is a place in Maine for splake, a fish particularly well-suited for ice fishing. But caution must be the watchword, lest we end up with more environmental disasters.

SAM's surveys of its members have found little interest in splake. Forty per cent favored eliminating them entirely and 86% favored rainbow trout over splake. A Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife survey of anglers ranked splake 11th behind all other salmonids, bass, and even white perch.

The state's Hatchery Commission issued a unanimous recommendation in November 2002, "that current splake production should be dramatically reduced; a majority of commission members recommended that existing splake production be reduced from 2000 levels of 9,517 pounds per year to 5,600 pounds per year while a minority of the commission recommended removal of the splake stocking program."

In 2006, Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife stocked 43,910 splake totaling 14,821 pounds. The Hatchery Commission recommendation has been ignored.

It's time to be cautious with this invasive fish. It's time to stop making mistakes. It's time to put the brakes on splake.

This opinion article first appeared in the Kennebec Journal June 27, 2007. It was written by George Smith, executive director of the Sportsmen's Alliance of Maine.

Lakes:
Regions: Sebago, Belgrade, Rangeley, Moosehead, Sanford, Bangor, Katahdin, Embden, Houlton, Lincoln, Jackman, Presque Isle, Allagash, Calais, Mid Coast, Downeast


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